TOKYO (AP) — Millions of people took refuge at home, stocked supplies, and looked suspiciously at how close their friends and neighbors approached, as fear of the new coronavirus spread Monday to more locations around the world. In the United States, the big casinos in Las Vegas closed. Restaurants offered only takeaways, if they opened. Schools, concerts, sporting events, and even the small St. Patrick’s parties were canceled.
It is a reality that Northeast Asia has been living for months, but while the epicentre of the pandemic seemed to move from its home region, many in Asia continued to call for vigilance against any slips that could tarnish costly advances against the outbreak.” If we loosen in quarantine, it would be a matter of time before the embers of small pockets of infection were revived,” said popular South Korean newspaper Dong-a Ilbo in a publishing house Monday. China, where the virus was first detected in December, already accounted for less than half of the world’s 169,000 cases, according to a count from Johns University Hopkins.La ban on public agglomerations and quarantine in the most affected central region contained contagions in China as the virus spread rapidly elsewhere. Most of the 77,000 patients recovered were in China.The previously constant traffic began to return to Beijing. Office buildings, however, applied strict body temperature controls and most restaurants only offered takeaways. Children, usually busy with classes and homework, were instead seen glued to screens, shopping, chatting or watching music videos. As the world was crippling much of public life – bars, restaurants, schools, jobs – Asian cities were beginning to worry more about receiving imported cases of the virus after containing local contagions. Starting Monday, travelers arriving in Beijing from abroad will spend a 14-day quarantine at designated locations and bear the costs. Until now, people with symptoms did a voluntary quarantine at home. In the last count, the Chinese National Health Commission reported 16 new cases of coronavirus in the previous 24 hours. Twelve were imported from other countries, including four in Beijing.China now has 80,860 confirmed cases. The health commission noted that 67,749 recovered patients have been discharged from hospitals. In the last 24 hours, 14 new deaths were reported, bringing the total death toll in the country to 3,213.
Although China remains the country with the most infected people, there are a dozen countries with more than a thousand cases, most in Europe.
For most people, coronavirus only causes mild or moderate symptoms such as fever and cough, and those who get mildly ill recover within about two weeks. But others, especially the elderly and people with previous medical problems, can suffer serious complications such as pneumonia. Recovery from the most severe cases can take about six weeks.
Original source in Spanish
